What if you were charged by your auto insurance company for the amount of the time you spent behind the wheel? You would only have to pay for the amount of the time you drive. Does this sound like a great idea? Well this is a “usage-based” insurance idea that is a new insurance choice offered in Ontario. What a novel idea! This might even reduce the number of accidents and the congestion on our highways.

Desjardins Insurance offers this type of insurance in Ontario through a program called Ajusto. The only thing a driver has to do is allow a free black box to be added to their car under their dashboard to track their mileage. The black box relays real time information back to the insurance company to let them know the distance traveled, the time of day and acceleration and braking habits of the driver. Surprisingly speed is not something that is recorded.

Where this type of insurance is a real advantage is for people who drive less or who drive occasionally. Times they like to avoid to drive are during rush hour and late at night. Also, people who are careful with their driving and not slamming on their brakes or speeding tend to get in fewer accidents.

The data is collected all year and at time of renewal, the driver’s new insurance rate is calculated. Some discounts can be as high as 25 percent! The information collected can only lower the cost of insurance and not raise it. All personal information is protected and not shared with any third parties.

Automobile Black Box

But the jury is out on whether this is such a good idea to have this information recorded with the black boxes. One Ottawa defence attorney, David Anber, believes that the data collected may backfire for some people. If a police officer wanted to get access to the information they could by way of a court order. Even if it is not shared with a third party some government officials can get access to the information.

But although police and government officials could access this information there is no need for alarm. In most new cars there is a black box already designed into the vehicle which records more information than the black boxes the insurance companies install. Therefore the information that insurance companies collect is nothing new.

This insurance saving program has not been around very long. It has only been available for about four months in Ontario. Even so, about 30 percent of new customers have been adding the little black box to their cars to save money.

So if you would like to save money on your auto insurance and you believe that you are a driver that could benefit from this program, you might want to contact your insurance today to learn more about the Ajusto option from Desjardins.

What are your thoughts about this new black box insurance? Is it something you would try?